The Influence of Right-Wing Populism on Immigration Rhetoric in France and the Netherlands
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Moving Right? The Influence of Right-Wing Populism on Immigration Rhetoric in France and the Netherlands Figure 1 A cartoon illustrating how Dutch politics has changed in the run up to the 2017 national election (cartoon by Peter Schrank). MA Thesis in European Studies Graduate School for Humanities University of Amsterdam Author: Yasmin van Benthem Student number: 10524754 Main supervisor: prof. dr. L.A. Bialasiewicz Second supervisor: dr. M.J.M. Rensen July 2017 Table of contents List of figures 3 Abstract 4 Introduction 5 1. Right-wing populism: definitions and categorizations 9 1.1 'Populism': a contested concept 9 1.2 Different definitions of 'populism' 10 1.3 The historical development of right-wing populism 13 1.4 The different categorizations of 'right-wing populism' 15 2. Methodology: critical discourse analysis 18 2.1 Critical discourse analysis 18 2.2 Critical geopolitics: a framework for analysis 21 3. The Netherlands: from ethnic minority policy to assimilationist immigration policies 23 3.1 Dutch immigration policy: a brief historical overview 23 3.2 Context: the new (right-wing) face of mainstream political parties 26 3.3 Discourse analysis: the influence of right-wing populism in the Netherlands 29 4. The Politics of Immigration in France 36 4.1 The development of French immigration policy 36 4.2 Context: the 'revolutionary' French presidential election of 2017 40 4.3 Discourse analysis: the influence of right-wing populism in France 42 Conclusion 46 Bibliography 49 2 List of figures Figure 1 A cartoon illustrating how Dutch politics has changed in the run up to the 2017 national election. Cartoon by Peter Schrank. Source: The Economist, 11 February 2017. Page 01 Figure 2 Poll displaying the electoral course of the PVV from September 2012 until March 2017. Source: Peilingwijzer 2017. Page 27 Figure 3 Poll displaying the electoral course of the VVD from September 2012 until March 2017. Source: Peilingwijzer 2017. Page 27 Figure 4 The open letter Rutte published in several Dutch newspapers, 23 January 2017. Source: NRC. Page 30 Figure 5 The political advertisement Asscher published in the Volkskrant, 10 March 2017. Source: De Volkskrant. Page 31 Figure 6 The official first round results of the 2017 French presidential Elections, 24 April 2017. Source: The Guardian. Page 40 3 Abstract This thesis provides an analysis of the influence of right-wing populism on the immigration- rhetoric of left- and right-wing mainstream parties in France and the Netherlands. In order to determine the extent of right-wing populist influence, a critical discourse analysis (CDA) is applied to several key political speeches (with regard to the French context) and newspaper advertisements (with regard to the Dutch context), in the run-up to the national elections held in both countries in the spring of 2017. The sources that were used for the discourse analysis were chosen from both left- and right-wing mainstream parties in the two countries, since this thesis specifically focuses on how the traditional parties have presented themselves rhetorically in the run up to national elections. The comparative analysis between the Dutch and French elections illustrates some of the ways in which national socio-political contexts are adapting to wider European political trends. The focus lies, in particular, on the shift of mainstream parties to the right side of the political spectrum with regard to immigration policy, interrogating to what extent the traditional left- and right-wing parties in France and the Netherlands have been influenced by such a shift. 4 Introduction In the past few years, the European political landscape has witnessed the upsurge of a number of right-wing populist parties in Western Europe (Rooduijn 2013, 2). The right-wing populist United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), for example, is seen as one of the main advocates of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), while also Donald Trump’s shocking victory in the US presidential elections has emphasized the rise of right-wing populism in the West. Even in countries whereas right-wing populist parties have not been successful in claiming power in the government, far right parties are enjoying record popularity in the polls (Bröning 2016). Especially within the context of the recent terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic State (IS) on European soil, coupled with widespread anxiety towards what was present as a ‘massive wave’ of immigrants with a Muslim background, many right-wing populist parties have succeeded in mobilizing voters and have emerged as key players in the run up to the 2017 national elections, scheduled to be held in several European countries (Mudde 2016, 25). The Dutch general elections were seen by many observers as the first big test in 2017, where the right-wing populist Partij voor de Vrijheid (‘Party for Freedom’, PVV) of Geert Wilders, was closely following the country’s leading Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (‘People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy’, VVD) in the polls. The Dutch election was then closely followed by Europe’s next big electoral test, which was held in April with the first round of the French presidential election, where the polls had predicted that the far-right Marine Le Pen of the Front National (‘National Front’, FN) might be a possible candidate for the second electoral round. Nevertheless, even though the increasing electoral popularity of right-wing populist parties may have important consequences for the current state of liberal democracy in Europe (and for the European project in general), perhaps an even bigger ‘risk’ to Europe is the influence of these parties on the traditional political parties and mainstream policymakers (Ward 2017). Several human rights organizations have, for example, reported that mainstream parties have increasingly begun to copy the agendas of right-wing populist parties for fear of losing voters instead of courageously confronting these parties and defending policies based on rights (Ward 2017). This ‘shift towards populism’ seems to be mainly present in the field of immigration politics, with mainstream parties appearing to increasingly adopt more and more of the right-wing populist discourse on immigration. Centre-right Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had, for example, published at the start of 2017 a much-debated open letter in several Dutch newspapers noting that people who “refuse to adapt and criticize our values” 5 should “behave normally or go away” (VVD 2017). However, also in the run up to the French elections, a number of the mainstream right candidates attempted to copy Nicolas Sarkozy’s tough approach towards Islam and immigration in a ploy to attract FN voters. This thesis therefore addresses the influence of right-wing populism on mainstream political parties and in particular on the rhetoric that they use with regard to the issue of immigration. The main goal is to examine whether mainstream politicians (both on the right and left side of the political spectrum) are following the path of right-wing populist politicians and are ‘swerving’ more and more to the right side of the political spectrum. Analysed is also whether this ‘strategy’ leads to failure or not (Wodak 2015, 35). This is done by analysing the immigration rhetoric of the main left- and right-wing mainstream candidates in the context of the 2017 Dutch and French elections, and comparing this to the rhetoric of their right-wing populist electoral opponents. The analysis is thereby mostly focused on Wodak’s conceptualization of right-wing populism as a ‘political ideology’ in which the framing of certain ethnic or religious minorities as a ‘danger’ or a ‘threat’ to the nation is considered very important (Wodak 2015, 2). The topic of this thesis is quite relevant in its focus on contemporary European politics, especially since it analyses how a European political trend such as right-wing populism emerges in two different national contexts. The outline of the thesis is as follows. In the first chapter, the different definitions and conceptualizations of ‘populism’ are explained. This is important, since there are several different labels used to describe the parties on the further right side of the political spectrum (Mammone 2009, 173). The chapter will also further elaborate on the historical development of right-wing populism and the different categorizations that are used within the scholarly literature on populism. In chapter two, the focus will be on the methodology that is used to analyse the influence of right-wing populism, namely the methodology of critical discourse analysis (CDA). As a methodology, CDA can help to expose power relations and ideologies, which are ‘hidden’ in a certain way in all sorts of texts (Kendall 2007). Furthermore, the chapter will focus on the framework of critical geopolitics in which the methodology is embedded. A critical geopolitical framework is especially important with regard to the analysis of the thesis, since it also focuses for a large part on the impact of different geopolitical imaginations on politics in France and the Netherlands. The following two chapters – chapter three and four – will focus on the impact of right-wing populism on mainstream politicians’ rhetoric on immigration in the national contexts of France and the Netherlands. 6 Chapter three will focus on the case study of the Netherlands. It will start with a historical overview of the Dutch immigration policies from the post-war period until present- day. The emphasis in this policy overview is in particular on the electoral breakthrough of the right-wing populist parties Lijst Pim Fortuyn (‘Pim Fortuyn List’, LPF) and the PVV and to what extent this has led to a policy change with regard to immigration policy in the Netherlands. It will be followed by an overview of the socio-political context in relation to the Dutch parliamentary election of March 2017.